


Dialogue from a Gotham Rooftop

by MaskoftheRay



Series: Stars Innumerable and Hearts Incandescent [5]
Category: Injustice: Gods Among Us
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Better times and happier memories, Bittersweet, Bruce Wayne Has Issues, Bruce and Clark are best friends, Bruce and Kal are NOT, Bruce and Kara have an interesting dynamic in IJ, Bruce would like someone to talk to, Dialogue-Only, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Hurt Bruce Wayne, Families of Choice, Feels, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Honesty, I wanted to explore that, Kara wants to understand her cousin, Loneliness, Neither are Bruce and Diana, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-War, more like mentorship?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-25 04:10:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20717879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaskoftheRay/pseuds/MaskoftheRay
Summary: Bruce and Kara discuss things (i.e. the past) during Superman’s trial.





	Dialogue from a Gotham Rooftop

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read without having read the other parts of “Stars Innumerable...” but if you want _more_ angst and Sad-Bruce, go ahead and read the rest of the series. As I mentioned in the tags, there are spoilers for IJ (at least the video games), so be aware of that. 
> 
> Any dialogue with extra white space between it symbolizes a pause in the conversation (in other words, an extended silence). 
> 
> Enjoy!

“Supergirl.”

“Oh! H-hi, Batman.”

“What are you doing up here, Kara?”

“I… it’s…”

“Is it the trial? Or something else?”

“A little of both, I think?”

“Tell me.”

“I didn’t know he was so… _popular_. No, wait, that’s stupid. I _knew_ that. It’s just, I didn’t know how many people’s lives he really affected, you know? I mean, Diana _told _me about it, but… hearing about it and now _seeing_ it in-person, it’s a different experience. Does that make sense?”

“Yes.”

“I mean, I hear all these people talking about K-Kal, and who he _was_ and I just… I don’t know what to think. It’s hard to imagine who he was ‘before’ when all I’ve seen is…”

“His brutality?”

“Yes. Yes, exactly. Although, I suppose, this must be strange for you too… I mean, you were friends, right?”

“He was my best friend.”

“I… Diana talked about that, a little.”

“Heh. I doubt she told you the **truth**.”

“I… I don’t know. She seemed pretty _candid _about it— the past. At least—”

“At least you **thought so**, until you came here.”

“Yeah. She told me… she told me you _all _were friends, before. Could you… do you mind—”

“Well, she wasn’t lying about that, at least. I don’t know what **else** she told you, but that much is true. I… it’s hard to explain, to really understand, unless you were **there**. Things were different, in those days. Not necessarily more hopeful, before the Justice League, at least. But they were… fresher. Nobody had ever done what we were trying to do, and the world was watching. Pressure like that either creates bonds or **breaks you**. I don’t trust easily, and in some ways, even less back then. But, yes, we were all friends.”

“Even you and Green Lantern? Diana told me some stories.”

“Hn. I didn’t say best friends.”

“I suppose. So. You and Kal El? How did that happen?”

“Hh. His stubbornness, mostly. I was **determined **to work alone. Thought he was a naïve, over-powered prick who’d wreck the world before he even knew what he was doing— heh. I was right, in the end… Anyway, we met because in those days, it was really just **us**; Diana hadn’t come into the picture yet, and the others, if they **were **active, were inexperienced. So it was really pragmatism that made me interact with him at all.”

“What changed? I mean, maybe it’s just me, but ‘pragmatism’ to ‘best friend’ seems like a pretty big leap, Bruce.”

“Time. Time changed everything. I worked more and more with him— I figured that if nothing else, I could keep an eye on Superman by letting him stick around— and then, eventually, I met… met—”

“Met Clark?”

“Yes. I met him, and realized how much **more **there was to him than Superman. How much he cared, and why. Then Diana showed up, and the league formed and, as they say, the rest is **history**.”

“I’m sorry.”

“… you and me both. If he’d— well, if **a lot** of things had gone differently, you couldn’t have asked for a better cousin. He would have adored you. Hell, Lois probably would’ve too. But Clark, he always felt like there was something missing from his life. I never really asked about it, but I always suspected that he felt incomplete, because he knew so little about Krypton.”

“I thought— didn’t he _know _about Krypton?”

“Some. He had the Fortress. The AI. His rocket. But that was it. And there’s only so much an AI can teach somebody, even one as advanced as Jor El’s system was. You, with all your lived experience, would’ve been like a Rosetta Stone for Kal.”

“Oh. I guess Diana lied about that…”

“I guess she did.”

“Can— were you _friends_ with Lois?”

“In a way. She and I never had the best relationship; we were very similar— too much, maybe. But she put up with me and **understood **me, even if she didn’t always agree with me. I appreciated that. And how happy she made Clark…”

“I was going to be the godfather.”

“Oh. _Bruce_. I— Diana never told me that.”

“No, I’m not surprised she didn’t. Not many people knew. I suppose she might not have. Perhaps, after… after everything, he never told her.”

“We need to go.”

“O-okay. I think I’m ready now. Thank you, Batman.”

“Thank you for listening. I… I miss him, but—”

“But he can never be set free again?”

“Exactly.”

“Alright then. Let’s go make sure of it.”

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone ever feels like doing art for this, I’d love to see it! 
> 
> **Now with a [podfic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26131510)**.


End file.
